The Machine Type Communication (MTC) User Equipment (UE or terminal), which is also called Machine to Machine (M2M) user communication equipment, is a main application form of the current Internet of things. In recent years, due to the high spectrum efficiency of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) system/Long-Term Evolution Advance (LTE-Advance or LTE-A) system, more and more mobile operators select the LTE/LTE-A as an evolution direction of the broadband wireless communication system. Various MTC data services based on the LTE/LTE-A may also become more attractive.
The conventional LTE/LTE-A system carries out transmission based on the dynamic scheduling of each sub-frame, and its frame structure is as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a frame structure in a Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) mode according to relevant art. As shown in FIG. 1, a wireless frame of 10 ms consists of twenty time slots of 0.5 ms (the numbers of which are 0 to 19), and time slots 2i and 2i+1 form a sub-frame i of 1 ms, where i is a natural number.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a frame structure in a Time Division Duplexing (TDD) mode according to relevant art, as shown in FIG. 2, a wireless frame of 10 ms consists of two half frames of 5 ms, wherein a half frame includes five sub-frames of 1 ms, and sub-frame i is pre-defined as two slots of 0.5 ms, (2i) and (2i+1).
A Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) and an enhanced Physical Downlink Control Channel (ePDCCH) are defined in the LTE/LTE-A system. The information carried in a Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PDFICH) is used for indicating the number of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbol for transmitting the PDCCH in one sub-frame. The Physical Hybrid Automatic Repeat-reQuest Indicator Channel (PHICH) is used for carrying the Acknowledgement/Negative Acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) feedback information of uplink transmission data.
The PDCCH is used for carrying Downlink Control Information (DCI), which includes: uplink/downlink scheduling information and uplink power control information.
The MTC can acquire the DCI by demodulating the PDCCH/ePDCCH, so as to demodulate and control a Physical Downlink Share Channel (PDSCH) and a Physical Uplink Share Channel (PUSCH).
In the MTC, there is a type of terminal, the coverage performance of which is reduced obviously due to the limitation of location or characteristics of itself. Therefore, this terminal needs a special coverage enhancing measure when it is in a low coverage environment. For the repeated transmission for a synchronous channel and service data in a time domain, namely, a plurality of sub-frames transmit the same information, energy accumulation at a receiving end is an effective solution for the coverage problem. At present, a downlink control channel does not support the repeated transmission in the time domain yet.
For the problem in the relevant art, there is still no effective solution yet.